COPYRIGHT, PLEASE NOTE

All the material on this website is copyrighted to J-P Metsavainio, if not otherwise stated. Any content on this website may not be reproduced without the author’s permission.

BUY A MUSEUM QUALITY POSTER

Sunday, March 30, 2025

A Fossil Footprint Nebula, NGC 1491

 I have shot this emission nebula in Perseus several times during the years and every time felt that I got more out of it.

I have wide field and mosaic images including the NGC 1491 as well as longer focal length photos with various reflecting telescopes. Some of them are included in the blog post as an example



NGC 1491, the Fossil Footprint Nebula
Click for a large image, 1800 x 2000 pixels

In Visual Colors

Photo in visual palette from the emission of an ionized elements


In Mapped Colors

A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, 
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue



A Closeup






INFO

NGC 1491, also known as LBN 704, SH2-206 or the Fossil Footprint Nebula, is an emission type bright nebula located about 9,800 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Perseus. The nebula gets its deep red coloration due to many massive stars (such as BD+50 866) embedded within NGC 1491 producing large amounts of ultraviolet radiation ionizing the elements in Nebula and making them glow light that can be seen in this image




Wide Field shots of the Area
Click for a much large image


Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle



Wider view
Click for a much large image

Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle




Older Long Focal Length Photos of NGC 1491

2015
Blog post with technical details HERE


2013
Blog post with technical details HERE




Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaximDL v6.5
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS
Levels and curves in PS

Imaging optics, 
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer

Mount, 
MesuMount Mark II

Cameras, 
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz

filters, 
Astrodon 5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Total exposure time 12h
H-alpha, 24 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 8 h 
O-III, 6x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 2h 
S-II, 6 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 2h 

 

www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 11:49 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Soul Nebula, IC1848

This is a new photo of this beautiful emission area in Cassiopeia. I'm using a long focal length telescope, Celestron EDGE HD 14" at the moment for a high resolution imaging work. This tool together with a second hand Apogee Alta U 9000M camera with a 12 micron pixels delivers deep images with lots of details.


Detail of my Soul
Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels


A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, 
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue



A Closeup
Click for a large image, 2000 x 2300 pixels






Soul nebula from 2014





A wide field mosaic image of the Milky Way
Click for a large image, 4600 x 2000 pixels

Hearth and Soul Nebulae at upper right corner


INFO

Soul Nebula, (Sh2-199, LBN 667) is an emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. IC 1848 is a cluster inside Soul Nebula. Distance is about 7.500 light years. This complex is a Eastern neighbor of IC 1805, the "Heart Nebula" and they are often mentioned together as Heart and Soul.



An alternative framing
Click for a large image, 2000 x 1600 pixels

This alternative framing shows the area more dynamic way





Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaximDL v6.5
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS
Levels and curves in PS

Imaging optics, 
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer

Mount, 
MesuMount Mark II

Cameras, 
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz

filters, 
Astrodon 5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Total exposure time 12h
H-alpha, 24 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 8 h 
O-III, 6x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 2h 
S-II, 6 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 2h 


www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 1:45 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Monday, March 24, 2025

Melotte 15 in heart nebula, IC 1805

 I shot material for this new photo back in February, 10 hours of exposures total for three narrowband color channels. (H-alpha, O-III and S-II)


MELOTTE 15
Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels

A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, 
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue



A Closeup
Click for a large image, 2000 x 2000 pixels





Melotte 15 in the Heart Nebula

Click for a large image, 2000 x 2500 pixels

A very large mosaic photo of IC 1805




Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaximDL v6.5
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS
Levels and curves in PS

Imaging optics, 
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer

Mount, 
MesuMount Mark II

Cameras, 
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz

filters, 
Astrodon 5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Total exposure time 10h
H-alpha, 18 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 6 h 
O-III, 6x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 2h 
S-II, 6 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 2h 












www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 3:46 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Monday, March 17, 2025

HFG1, a Planetary Nebula in Cassiopeia

I managed to get 17 hours of H-alpha light for the HFG1 and now I'm able to do color photo out of it.

This is a difficult target, very diffused and large, I tried to keep my processing kind of modest to bring out delectate nature of an old and dim planetary Nebula.

Total exposure time is 37 hours and signal wasn't the best possible but I'm happy with this result.

HFG1 (Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1)
Click for a large image, 2000x2000 pixels

A bicolor image, the light from an ionized oxygen, O-III can be seen as blueish hues, light from an ionized hydrogen, H-alpha, emits deep red light.



Closeup






HFG1 in O-III light only
Click for a large image, 2000x2000 pixels


HFG1 in the light emitted by an ionized oxygen, O-III



INFO

Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. The name of planetary nebulae originated in the 18th century due to the visual similarity between some circular planetary nebulae and the planets Uranus and Neptune when viewed through small optical telescopes, the name has remained although they are not planets.

HFG1 was created by the central star V664 Cas. This is not a single star, but a dense binary star system consisting of a white dwarf and a sun-like star, which are only a few million kilometers apart and orbit every 14 hours.
 
Because the binary system V664 Cas moves very fast at 29 to 59 kilometers per second and ploughs through the interstellar medium together with the nebula, a bluish arc shock occurs. HFG1 leaves behind a long, red trace of approx. 10,000 year old gas.



Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaximDL 6.5
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PotoShop
Levels and curves in PotoShop.

Imaging optics, 
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer

Mount, 
Mesu Mount Mark II

Cameras, 
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz

filters, 
Astrodon 5nm H-alpha, 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

O-III, 60 x 1200 s = 20h 
H-alpha, 51 x 1200 s = 17h

www.tips-fb.com Posted by J-P Metsavainio at 2:34 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)